Driverless cars (or End of the Road?)

Piles of crushed cars at a metal recycling site in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Photograph- Alamy

 

End of the Road: The World Car Crisis and How We Can Solve It is the title of a book by our EcoPlan colleague Wolfgang Zuckermann, published in 1991, in which which he reports on our vision and approach to the challenges of the sector as the results of our work and contributions over the decade of the eighties. End of the Road was written as an attempt to pull together all the rich body of information and ideas being generated by the New Mobility project, in an easily readable form, addressed to the general public, and put into jargon-free and vivid language not generally found in the transportation literature.

End of the Road:is available today from your favorite internet book supplier, or, if you are very lucky, your local bookseller.  (ISBN 0-930031-46-6, Chelsea Green Pub Co, Post Mils, Vermont, November, 1991)

From Publishers Weekly

A researcher for the Paris-based nonprofit institute EcoPlan International here examines ways to decrease pollution caused by excessive dependence on automobiles. Urging that we support other forms of transit, the author offers a plan for redesigning the world’s transportation systems–and the layouts of cities and suburbs–to encourage reliance on buses, trains, trams and nonmotorized transport. Other proposed solutions include developing automobiles less damaging to the environment and raising consciousness on this issue through education. While Zuckerman’s brief is compelling and many of his suggestions worthy, his call for national and even global social reorganization requires considerably more government intervention than seems plausible.

From Library Journal

This is a far-reaching and forward-thinking attempt to answer every argument that can be made for owning and operating an automobile. Zuckermann, a Paris-based consultant, writes in an engaging and soothing style and has gathered some prodigious research to bolster his twin theses that the automobile is a fundamental cause of environmental, social, and economic difficulties and that comprehensive change is the only responsible solution. With well-documented chapters on everything from speed bumps to hitchhiking to the 100-mile-per-gallon carburetor, this book is an excellent compendium of heretofore unheard-of and hard-to-find examples, good and bad, of our relationship with the car. Although the author advocates a global effort to deal with the car crisis, the book contains plenty of good advice for small steps as well. Excellent for policymakers, planners, and strategists, but accessible to literate readers of all stripes.

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Wolfgang Joachim Zuckermann (born 11 October 1922) is a noted harpsichord maker, author and environmental and social activist. He was born in Berlin, became an American citizen in 1938 and has lived in France since 1995. He saw front line action as a Private with the U.S. Army and followed this by obtaining a BA in English and psychology from Queens College, New York, winning the title of Queens College Scholar, the highest honor conferred upon graduates at that institution. After a stint as a child psychologist, Zuckermann, an amateur musician, became one of the first harpsichord makers in the United States and in the late 1950s invented the “do-it-yourself” harpsichord kit, sometimes called the ‘Model T’ harpsichord, which he sold in large quantities to institutions, professionals, and individuals around the world, thus fundamentally transforming a significant part of the world musical scene. He worked as a senior associate with EcoPlan and the New Mobility Agenda program from 1990 – 1995.

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Eric Britton
13, rue Pasteur. Courbevoie 92400 France

Bio: Founding editor of World Streets (1988), Eric Britton is an American political scientist, teacher, occasional consultant, and sustainability activist who has observed, learned, taught and worked on missions and advisory assignments on all continents. In the autumn of 2019, he committed his remaining life work to the challenges of aggressively countering climate change and specifically greenhouse gas emissions emanating from the mobility sector. He is not worried about running out of work. Further background and updates: @ericbritton | http://bit.ly/2Ti8LsX | #fekbritton | https://twitter.com/ericbritton | and | https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericbritton/ Contact: climate@newmobility.org) | +336 508 80787 (Also WhatApp) | Skype: newmobility.)

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